Do I use a lot of fuel sitting at traffic lights?

Answers

A general rule of thumb is that idling your car for 10 seconds uses as much gas as turning off your car and starting it back up again. Also, idling for 2 minutes uses about the same amount of fuel as driving one mile. Avoiding excessing idling can increase your fuel economy up to 19%.

Everyone knows that idling doesn’t get you anywhere … literally! For every ten minutes your car idles, you’re spending about 0.026 gallons of gas which, depending on the price of gas, equals about 5 cents (maybe more with how much gas costs these days!). Think about how often you idle for ten minutes, in traffic dropping off the kids in the morning, in line waiting for your morning cup o’ Joe, in line waiting to use the ATM, in traffic on your way into the city for a meeting, in traffic on your way home, in line waiting to pick up the kids .. it doesn’t seem like much but 5 cents here and there adds up.

What’s more is that because the engine is not operating at its peak ability while idling, the car does not undergo combustion which leaves residue that can contaminate the oil and damage engine parts leading to additional avoidable costs long term.